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Serbian and Croatian media are reporting that the war criminal and genocidal butcher Ratko Mladić may have been captured. Mladic is an indicted war criminal who personally ordered what amounted to genocide in Bosnia & Hercegovina during the Yugoslav wars in the early 1990s. He’s been on the run, largely protected by gangsters and their enablers in the Serbian and Bosnian Serb governments. Belgrade’s B92 (via Jutarnji List) says that the Serbian interior ministry’s SWAT teams apprehended someone using the name “Milorad Komadić”, and DNA testing is underway to determine whether Komadić is, in fact, Mladić. The Serbian interior ministry says it will know for sure within three days. Mladić was apprehended in, of all places, Srebrenica – the site of his most vicious crime. UPDATE: Tadić says Mladić was apprehended on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, but didn’t reveal where. Tadić also took a subtle swipe at Croatia, where the recent Hague conviction of General Ante Gotovina has resulted in numerous angry demonstrations.

If so, a monster is caught and Serbia can start putting a very ugly past more firmly behind it. Mladić’s political counterpart in war crimes, Radovan Karadžić, was found and apprehended in Belgrade in 2008, living as a homeopathic healer under an assumed name and a very long beard. His case in the Hague is underway.

Serbian President Boris Tadić is expected to hold a news conference at 7am EDT.

UPDATE: Tadić just confirmed that Mladić has been arrested, and extradition is underway.

4 Responses to “Ratko Mladić Apprehended? (UPDATED)”

These are tough times for mass murderers. First, bin Laden is dispensed with and now this heinous henchman is rounded up. This is good news and an important step in Serbia’s redemption, although it will be a long time before some Serbs come to terms with the acts of their fellow countrymen during the brutal days of the Bosnian conflict